


The Concept of 'Love'

by SchriftV



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 05:23:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19166662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SchriftV/pseuds/SchriftV
Summary: Sometimes you should thoroughly check the databanks your brand new program scours through....





	The Concept of 'Love'

**Author's Note:**

> I dub this ship Ironyshipping, I hope everyone can be on board with that.
> 
> This Chapter is wholesome, the next chapter... Not so much

_I am of no harm to humans._

The words of the brand new AI rang true in her own mind. She was created to aid in hunting down the Dark Ignis, in order to protect humanity from whatever harm it could cause. There was not a inkling of a thought in her mind to ever betray that purpose - as a matter of fact she _couldn't_ \- and she would serve her purpose faithfully.

However, as a new AI she had her curiosities. It was only natural for a new neural network like her to have those: The world had so many things that she did not understand yet, so many things that even terabytes of data could not help her comprehend. Things beyond humanity's recorded history, scientific facts about many miscellaneous topics and current issues that had humanity in disarray… Subjects such as emotions.

But, most importantly, the concept of 'love'.

No matter what she looked up about the subject, the information simply didn't make sense to her. Love stories were an unreliable source as well. She needed more information, a reliable source that could make her understand just what love was supposed to be. Pandor wanted to know, she _had_ to know. One of the scraps of data she had come across in her collection of important information was a quote that stuck in her mind as much as her creed to never harm a human being.

> I protect those that I love, I would move mountains for those I love. If I had to, I would even die for those whom I love.

That quote had confused her before, as humans aren’t capable of performing such herculean feats. With some further research, Pandor indeed found that one would never be able to actually move a mountain. She had found that 'moving mountains' was not a literal phrase, but rather a figurative phrase meant to indicate great effort. Now that her initial confusion was cleared, that only left the part about ‘love’ unsolvable.

_What is love? How does one feel love? How does one express love? Can you love many people? Can you love all the people? Is it possible to protect someone one doesn't love? Can an AI love?_

The questions went on and with more data offering Pandor nothing but extra questions, she did the only thing she could possibly do at this point: Ask for the human perspective. Her master was currently not present, her internal clock telling her it was still too early for him to wake up. Thus, she figured the best thing to do was to prepare her questions until he arrived.

 

\--

 

A few hours later, Ryoken rose from another one of his dreamless slumbers. He stretched his still half-asleep body, there was no time for him to snooze nor wait to get up; there were things he had to do.. Clueless of what his new AI had been pondering about while nobody was present to monitor her, he proceeded through his morning routine. After a nice breakfast he decided to log into his network to get back to work, as well as check up on Pandor. He was satisfied with his creation of her and her subsequent development. Everything was going according to plan.

She was waiting for him as manifested into the network, even standing at attention for him. Perfect. Revolver acknowledged her and wanted to get straight back to combing the network for the Dark Ignis, but Pandor suddenly speaking up stopped him in his tracks.

"Revolver-sama, I would like to make an inquiry."

He didn't turn to face her as he replied.

"What is your inquiry?"

"What is love, Revolver-sama?"

Those words made him turn his back, his pale purple eyes widening slightly at the odd question. What had made her come to these questions? What leap of logic had she made in order to end up at this question? For a moment, Revolver didn’t know what to say, he was actually speechless. Pandor stared into his eyes, soulessly, waiting for her creator to answer her inquiry. It took Revolver a good few moments to get his mind back on track, fully turning to Pandor. He was no expert on this subject, far from it, truly. It wasn’t that he was loveless, but rather he did not possess a full vocabulary to explain it: It simply wasn’t his niche of philosophical subjects.

“It is difficult to factually define what love is.”

Pandor cocked her head to the side, taking in the answer with great interest. She raised her hands, gesturing as she replied.

“So, love is something that cannot be explained by facts? Then what would be the closest of explanations that would make conceptualizing ‘love’ feasible for me?”

Her eagerness to understand the concept made Revolver feel slightly uneasy. He wanted to find out where this fixation had come from. If only he had programmed her to automatically remove all uncouth thoughts, because an AI wanting to understand what love is… This wasn’t what he had in mind for her at all.

“Love is something that can connect humans. Be it as family: Mother, father, children. Sibling relationships and all other varieties…. But also as romantic partners. Lovers. In order to procreate and sustain humanity with their limited time on earth.” 

That explanation took more out of him than expected. Pandor took all of it in with seemingly great interest. Her face may have been blank, but her eyes had lit up when the term ‘romantic partner’ had come up in his explanation. He watched as she took a few steps closer to him, her curiosity was seemingly not satiated yet.

“So there is a physical aspect to love, Revolver-sama? How do humans express love?”

These questions, combined with Pandor stepping right into his personal space caused Ryoken to step back. What kind of answers was she trying to gain from him? Normally he’d have a response to these kinds of questions but Pandor’s suddenness shut him down. He could feel his breath hitch and his face heat up as she stepped closer. He was trying to find the words to make her back off, but he couldn't find them. He was blanking out at the worst possible moment.

“I have read some things about love online, Revolver-sama… but I think that fiction and anecdotes are not a good frame of reference…”  
  
She continued, her face was so close to his now. Pandor had completely breached his personal space and he could feel his own breathing grow heavier. This was not something he had expected to deal with at all, nor did he have a way to deal with this. He wanted to speak up, but Pandor interrupted him, two of her fingers brushing his cheek, right below his visor. It didn’t help to hide the color that was rushing to his face. She spoke up again, her fingers resting on his face.

“Is this how humans express love? An increased heart rate, a rising body temperature, blood rushing to the head, flushing of the cheeks, ears and even neck… Revolver-sama, do I understand this correctly?”

He couldn’t even get a word in anymore, all he could do was stare. The AI that he had created had already jumped to these sorts of topics. If wasn’t just the coolness of the fingertips on his warm skin that had Revolver paralyzed, the fact she was reading out his vitals that way had him stunned. He broke out in a cold sweat and a lump formed in his throat. Why was he this nervous? His eyes were glued to hers, she was clearly observing his responses, and she seemed to light up when she took her small advance further. She cupped his cheek with her hand, the extra coolness causing Revolver to inhale sharply. He wasn’t sure whether it was her cool touch or his nerves fraying, but he could feel his face burning up more than it already had.

He could only swallow down the lump in his throat the moment Pandor removed her hand from his cheek. She moved that hand under her chin, looking away for a second, seemingly pondering over the data she just collected.

“Thank you very much, I understand now.”

The AI dismissed herself with those words, leaving Revolver alone and baffled. His mind was a buzzing mess: His creation was already going haywire in some way or another. Had he made the right decision? Doubts were bubbling up, but he dismissed them all. Pandor was not going to cause any harm to humans, he had done that right. He had made her that way. That alone was what was important: If these silly thoughts started taking over her processing too much, he could simply remove those too…. His breathing stabilized again, and he calmed down. Now he could finally get to work.

The cool sensation of Pandor’s fingertips seemed to linger in his mind as he worked, and his heart raced and his muscles twitched every time he found himself thinking about it again. What had she understood…? Perhaps he’d ask that another time, when he wasn’t so busy.


End file.
